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In the last 30 years, evolutionary theory has undergone explosive growth in studying humans as a fundamentally cultural species.
David talks with Alex Mesoudi about this field of cultural evolution and how it is bringing a full view of humanity into inquiry and building bridges across disparate fields of science.
Alex Mesoudi is an Associate Professor of Cultural Evolution at the University of Exeter (Cornwall Campus), UK. He conducts research into human cultural evolution: explaining cultural change using the concepts, tools and methods of evolutionary theory. Specifically, he uses lab experiments and theoretical models to simulate the individual-level social learning processes - who copies what, from whom, and when - that generate large-scale patterns of cultural change and diversity. Much of his work has examined technological evolution, looking at arrowheads and handaxes. More recently he has been studying immigration as a source of cultural change and stasis. His 2011 book, Cultural Evolution, was his attempt to synthesise cultural evolution research across multiple disciplines to encourage a unified evolutionary science of culture
